One month ago, I was on Twitter and saw a tweet from @MebFaber that said he had a family friend find $50k of unclaimed assets. Intrigued, I headed to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators' (NAUPA) website to see if I had any unclaimed money due to me. I was surprised to see that I had an undisclosed amount due to my name from an address I lived at over 15 years ago. I put in a claim and yesterday I received a check for $73 from the State of New Jersey. It turns out that I had money due to me from Aetna insurance. Such a cool service!
Claim your unclaimed property today!
Going to NAUPA to see if you have money or property owed to you takes only a few minutes of your time and could be worth big money. While it is usually for small amounts like deposits made to utility companies, in December 2011, a Kansas City woman received a $6.1 million check for unclaimed property. The funds related to a stock purchased by one of her ancestors!
In case you aren't convinced, consider these two facts:
1) Approximately one in every 10 people in the US has unclaimed property.
2) There is approximately $41 billion being held by state Treasuries in unclaimed property.
Types of UP include: unclaimed security deposits, life insurance proceeds, uncashed payroll checks, stocks/bonds, outstanding checks, safe deposit boxes, unredeemed gift certificates, dormant checking/savings accounts, rebates.
Search tips for unclaimed property
Here are some valuable search tips:
- Go to every state that you lived in. Some of the states don't participate in the aggregated search sites so it is important to search each state's unclaimed property website that you resided in.
- Search for your parents and grandparents. This is where the bigger money can be found. I had a client find over $7000 from searching for her father-in-law.
- It can be addicting. Be forewarned because searching can become addicting. My friend ended up searching for her friends and family and found money for a lot of people!
What are you waiting for? Go to the NAUPA website and start your search.
If you find anything, let me know in the comments section and I'll do a follow up post on what everyone found.
Happy hunting!
Find more from the author at the Runnymede Blog.